At ESPN.com, Pierre LeBrun writes that the next move the NHLPA makes will tell a lot about what the next step in the labor negotiation will be.

He notes that the players need to move on core economics and that if they do, the league needs to drop some player contract demands such as five-year limits.

The fear from the players is that if they move on core economics the owners won’t move on contract rights and could instead ask for more. The league feels the same way about contract issues and that if they moved on them, the players may still seek a guaranteed share of HRR.

Elliotte Friedman writes at CBC that the whole negotiation is based off the players moving off their demand of $1.883 billion and instead show what percentage of HRR they would be willing to accept.

Adam Rotter:This all goes back to the issue of trust. The players need to trust that if they come down to where the owners want on HRR, than the owners will come down from some of their contract demands. If the players come down in HRR and the owners don’t move or ask for more, that will be the end of talks and probably the season.